Mosquito Intruders - Target Burma
Mosquito Intruders - Target Burma

Author: Jeremy Walsh

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2024-02-22

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1399052691

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The exploits of the Mosquito crews in Burma, skimming at low-level and at speed along rivers and over treetops to their targets, are the stuff of legend. Surprisingly, however, only five RAF squadrons ever flew these operations. Mosquito Intruders – Target Burma explores the achievements of these intruder squadrons, as well as the costs to the men who flew and supported them. Their story starts in mid-1943, almost as soon as the fighter-bomber variant of the ‘Mossie’, the iconic de Havilland Mosquito FB VI, had been introduced to squadron service in the UK. The first challenge was to deliver the new aircraft, with its radical wooden construction, to India and build a supply chain to support it. Then, with few dual-control aircraft, they needed to train the crews to operate the Mosquito to the limits of its performance in often hostile weather over inhospitable territory against an aggressive enemy. Some crews converted from a similar low-level role to extend the reach of the impressive but already obsolescent Beaufighter. Other squadrons, converting from the single-engine Vultee Vengeance dive bomber, needed to learn how to handle a faster twin-engine intruder and to fly at low level. Against the odds, both the aircraft and their crews delivered! Mosquito Intruders – Target Burma uses diaries, first-hand accounts, and official records to take the reader through the Mosquito intruders’ three-year campaign to help force the Japanese out of Burma, living and dying with the brave warriors in the five squadrons which flew the FB VI. The first operations were flown by 27 Squadron, led by the renowned Wing Commander James Nicolson VC, the only person in RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War. Many of the airmen, like the author’s father who flew Mossie intruder ops with both 27 and 45 Squadrons, felt that they were ‘forgotten’ by the public back home and often by their own high command. But importantly, they knew that their actions were shortening the war in the Far East.

In the Fight
In the Fight

Author: Andrew Kilsby

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2024-10-30

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 1923144561

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Forgotten men and women from Australia in a forgotten war – Burma 1942-1945. If you didn’t know that Australians were involved in the longest campaign of WWII, in Burma, in what was called ‘a forgotten war’, this book illuminates the lost stories of their service. In the Fight tells the compelling stories behind the involvement of Australians in what became one of the great sagas of the war against the Japanese in Southeast Asia, encompassing India, Ceylon, Burma, China, Thailand, Indo-China, Malaya, Singapore and Sumatra. While Australian airmen attached to the Royal Air Force were heavily engaged, many other Australians both uniformed and civilian were part of the monumental struggle to turn ‘defeat into victory’ in Burma. Australian war correspondents, Red Cross nurses, Royal Australian Navy sailors, war artists, commandos and saboteurs, soldiers serving with the British Indian Army, the Women’s Auxiliary Service (Burma), well known sportsmen, government officials dealing with the terrible Bengal famine, Qantas crews and POWs in the Rangoon Jail are all covered in these detailed accounts. Written by leading authorities and expertly edited by Andrew Kilsby and Daryl Moran, In the Fight reveals the long-hidden stories of the Australians and the war in Burma.

Mosquito Intruders - Target Burma
Mosquito Intruders - Target Burma

Author: Jeremy Walsh

Publisher: Air World

Published: 2024-01-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781399052658

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The exploits of the Mosquito crews in Burma, skimming at low-level and at speed along rivers and over treetops to their targets, are the stuff of legend. Surprisingly, however, only five RAF squadrons ever flew these operations. Mosquito Intruders - Target Burma explores the achievements of these intruder squadrons, as well as the costs to the men who flew and supported them. Their story starts in mid-1943, almost as soon as the fighter-bomber variant of the 'Mossie', the iconic de Havilland Mosquito FB VI, had been introduced to squadron service in the UK. The first challenge was to deliver the new aircraft, with its radical wooden construction, to India and build a supply chain to support it. Then, with few dual-control aircraft, they needed to train the crews to operate the Mosquito to the limits of its performance in often hostile weather over inhospitable territory against an aggressive enemy. Some crews converted from a similar low-level role to extend the reach of the impressive but already obsolescent Beaufighter. Other squadrons, converting from the single-engine Vultee Vengeance dive bomber, needed to learn how to handle a faster twin-engine intruder and to fly at low level. Against the odds, both the aircraft and their crews delivered! Mosquito Intruders - Target Burma uses diaries, first-hand accounts, and official records to take the reader through the Mosquito intruders' three-year campaign to help force the Japanese out of Burma, living and dying with the brave warriors in the five squadrons which flew the FB VI. The first operations were flown by 27 Squadron, led by the renowned Wing Commander James Nicolson VC, the only person in RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War. Many of the airmen, like the author's father who flew Mossie intruder ops with both 27 and 45 Squadrons, felt that they were 'forgotten' by the public back home and often by their own high command. But importantly, they knew that their actions were shortening the war in the Far East.

Mosquito Intruders - Target Burma
Mosquito Intruders - Target Burma

Author: Jeremy Walsh

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2024-02-22

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1399052675

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The exploits of the Mosquito crews in Burma, skimming at low-level and at speed along rivers and over treetops to their targets, are the stuff of legend. Surprisingly, however, only five RAF squadrons ever flew these operations. Mosquito Intruders – Target Burma explores the achievements of these intruder squadrons, as well as the costs to the men who flew and supported them. Their story starts in mid-1943, almost as soon as the fighter-bomber variant of the ‘Mossie’, the iconic de Havilland Mosquito FB VI, had been introduced to squadron service in the UK. The first challenge was to deliver the new aircraft, with its radical wooden construction, to India and build a supply chain to support it. Then, with few dual-control aircraft, they needed to train the crews to operate the Mosquito to the limits of its performance in often hostile weather over inhospitable territory against an aggressive enemy. Some crews converted from a similar low-level role to extend the reach of the impressive but already obsolescent Beaufighter. Other squadrons, converting from the single-engine Vultee Vengeance dive bomber, needed to learn how to handle a faster twin-engine intruder and to fly at low level. Against the odds, both the aircraft and their crews delivered! Mosquito Intruders – Target Burma uses diaries, first-hand accounts, and official records to take the reader through the Mosquito intruders’ three-year campaign to help force the Japanese out of Burma, living and dying with the brave warriors in the five squadrons which flew the FB VI. The first operations were flown by 27 Squadron, led by the renowned Wing Commander James Nicolson VC, the only person in RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War. Many of the airmen, like the author’s father who flew Mossie intruder ops with both 27 and 45 Squadrons, felt that they were ‘forgotten’ by the public back home and often by their own high command. But importantly, they knew that their actions were shortening the war in the Far East.

Apollo's Warriors
Apollo's Warriors

Author: Michael E. Haas

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1998-05

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780788149832

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Presenting a fascinating insider's view of U.S.A.F. special operations, this volume brings to life the critical contributions these forces have made to the exercise of air & space power. Focusing in particular on the period between the Korean War & the Indochina wars of 1950-1979, the accounts of numerous missions are profusely illustrated with photos & maps. Includes a discussion of AF operations in Europe during WWII, as well as profiles of Air Commandos who performed above & beyond the call of duty. Reflects on the need for financial & political support for restoration of the forces. Bibliography. Extensive photos & maps. Charts & tables.

Piercing the Fog
Piercing the Fog

Author: John F. Kreis

Publisher: Military Bookshop

Published: 2013-05

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 9781782663812

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From the foreword: WHEN JAPAN ATTACKED PEARL HARBOR on December 7, 1941, and Germany and Italy joined Japan four days later in declaring war against the United States, intelligence essential for the Army Air Forces to conduct effective warfare in the European and Pacific theaters did not exist. Piercing the Fog tells the intriguing story of how airmen built intelligence organizations to collect and process information about the enemy and to produce and disseminate intelligence to decisionmakers and warfighters in the bloody, horrific crucible of war. Because the problems confronting and confounding air intelligence officers, planners, and operators fifty years ago still resonate, Piercing the Fog is particularly valuable for intelligence officers, planners, and operators today and for anyone concerned with acquiring and exploiting intelligence for successful air warfare. More than organizational history, this book reveals the indispensable and necessarily secret role intelligence plays in effectively waging war. It examines how World War II was a watershed period for Air Force Intelligence and for the acquisition and use of signals intelligence, photo reconnaissance intelligence, human resources intelligence, and scientific and technical intelligence. Piercing the Fog discusses the development of new sources and methods of intelligence collection; requirements for intelligence at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of warfare; intelligence to support missions for air superiority, interdiction, strategic bombardment, and air defense; the sharing of intelligence in a coalition and joint service environment; the acquisition of intelligence to assess bomb damage on a target-by-target basis and to measure progress in achieving campaign and war objecti ves; and the ability of military leaders to understand the intentions and capabilities of the enemy and to appreciate the pressures on intelligence officers to sometimes tell commanders what they think the commanders want to hear instead of what the intelligence discloses. The complex problems associated with intelligence to support strategic bombardment in the 1940s will strike some readers as uncannily prescient to global Air Force operations in the 1990s.," Illustrated.